Klance
by Nightstar26504
Summary: Keith and Lance. Story my friend wrote.


**A/N: Hey it's Dawntale! My friend wrote this and wanted me to publish it because she doesn't have an account. Enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or Voltron, it belongs to DreamWorks.**

Lance walked slowly down the silent halls of the castle, his mind buzzing with all the things he kept from his crew members. How much he missed home, how scared he was every time they entered the battlefield, how he really felt about Keith… lots of things.

By now, they had been away from Earth for almost six months, yet they still hadn't managed to get anywhere near Zarkon. They had taken out hundreds of Galra soldiers, freed several planets, yet barely even made a dent in his massive rule. Coming back from their latest fight now seemed like a routined event.

Everything was normal, or as normal as it got when you were one of the five paladins who had to fight to save the universe by conjoining robotic lions into a megawarrior. Pidge and Hunk were working on making modifications to the Altean tech in the green lion, Allura, Coran, and Shiro were looking for the next planet to free from Zarkon's rule, and Keith was most likely off training with the simulator.

Just thinking about Keith made Lance's head spin. He let his thoughts wander back to yesterday's battle with the Galra soldiers. He and Keith had fought together, back to back, defending each other from the creatures. The way he had held off the soldiers, paused to toss a lock of hair out of his face, then expertly knocked them clean off the side of the ship had made Lance's heart pound. In fact, he'd been so distracted that he didn't notice one of the soldiers preparing to shoot at him. Before he could get hurt, though, Keith had shoved him out of the way and defeated the soldier with one quick slice of his sword.

Trying and failing to push the memory aside, Lance trudged off to the kitchen to eat a breakfast of the weird green goo provided endlessly in the castle. He remembered how he'd just waved a dismissive hand at Keith and said 'I could have handled that on my own thank you very much'. Keith's face had looked so disappointed, for what reasons, though, Lance could not quite grasp. He didn't know why he was always so rude to Keith, when everything in his heart told him otherwise.

Lance grabbed a plate and pressed the button to make the goo come out of the hose. Nothing happened. He pressed it again, harder this time. Still nothing. "Come on," he muttered, clicking it rapidly. "What's wrong with this thing?"

"It's broken," said a voice from behind. Lance slowly turned around to see Keith wearing his standard gray t-shirt, but his red jacket was elsewhere. He didn't know how this was possible, but his muscles seemed more pronounced than before. Lance's stomach did somersaults, but he tried to forget the feeling. "Coran still hasn't fixed it from when Hunk made it overload."

"I didn't ask you, mullet head." Lance winced at his sharp tone, but he simply turned away and put his plate back down. Keith grunted in frustration.

"I just saved your life, you oughta at least say thank you."

"Oh please," Lance scoffed. "Don't bother with that. We all know you only did it so Allura wouldn't be on your case about letting a paladin get hurt. You're Keith, high and mighty, you don't want anything to hurt your amazing reputation." Keith balled his hands into fists. Lance was aware that he was pushing his limits here, but he was curious to see just how far he could push it.

"That's not what I think. I'm not really as great as I make it seem." Keith looked down at the floor, and for a moment Lance saw something in his dark violet eyes. Insecurity, maybe. This was surprising, and he almost wanted to ask him why. Almost.

"Well, look, finally something we can agree on. Why don't you just go drool over Shiro or something." But he'd pushed just a bit too far. Keith grabbed him by the collar and almost lifted him off the floor. Their faces were just inches apart.

"Will you lay off for once?" he yelled. "I'm trying to help us bond as a team, but you're too thick headed and arrogant to go along with it. Could you at least pretend to tolerate me?" Lance opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it. Keith threw him against the wall and he landed with a loud _oof_ noise.

"You know what's stupid?" he said, his back now turned. "I was almost looking forward to us being friends." He walked away and left Lance to contemplate his actions.

After the showdown in the kitchen, Lance couldn't help but feel guilty. _And I should_ , he thought to himself. _After all, I continued the argument after Keith had told me to stop. And why did I do it? Why do it in the first place? Why be so cruel to him instead of letting us be friends?_

 _Oh that's right. I thought that if I pretended to hate him, it'd hurt less when I found out he didn't like me back._

And clearly that was wrong.

Lance thought desperately for a way to fix this. He really didn't want to go and apologize, but at the same time, couldn't find a better way. It might have been best to just be straightforward with him. Besides, the sooner the better. And it was almost noon.

Lance's loud footsteps echoed through the corridor and his hands felt heavy as he knocked on Keith's door. There was a grunt from inside; a signal to come in. He gently pried the door open to see Keith spread out across his bed, one hand behind his head and his foot bouncing up and down slowly. He was busy examining his sword, but when he looked up he paused with his hand hovering over the blade. Their eyes met. Looking into Keith's eyes had always made Lance a bit sad, but more so today than usual.

"What do you want?" Keith said cooly.

"T-To apologize," Lance stuttered. Keith furrowed his brow. It was really rare to see Lance's confidence waver like that.

"Alright, whatever," he sighed. Lance shuffled inside and sat down on the edge of Keith's bed.

"Too close," Keith said tersely. So Lance moved down a little. And for a while they just sat there in silence. He noticed that Keith's face hat turned a very light shade of pink, almost like he was blushing. But that couldn't be right. So he launched into his rehearsed speech.

"Keith," Lance said finally, "I'm really sorry. I know I've been awful to you, and I wish I hadn't been. I just-" Lance stopped abruptly. The whole point of this had been to not get too attached to this boy, and here he was about to spill a secret.

"Just what?" Keith said. Lance decided to tell him what he'd been thinking, and do it quickly before he changed his mind.

"You remind me of home. You always have. I really miss Earth, and you've always been a reminder of everything I left behind. I thought maybe distancing myself from you would make me forget about all that, but it's only made me feel worse. Still, that's no reason to take it out on you, and I'm sorry." Keith put his sword aside and stared at him for a moment. Suddenly, Lance felt awkward. "I probably sound stupid saying that."

"Actually I get it." Lance looked up.

"You do?" He nodded.

"Earth's always been our home. You just miss it. I do to. And I get how you thought it'd be easier to try to put it behind you. But that's not always how things work."

"I see that now."

"I'll forgive you, just try to lighten up about it." Keith smiled a bit. "I mean, think about jt this way. We get to save the universe. How cool is that?"

"It's pretty cool," Lance laughed. Their eyes met again, and he felt his heart stirr a bit. Something about this moment, right here and now, felt important. He wanted to do something important in this miniscule fragment of time. He wanted to kiss Keith. And so he did.

The moment their lips met Lance felt the rest of the world melting away. Keith's mouth was warm and inviting and it felt like they were connected on a much deeper level. Something more than just physical contact. But Lance didn't have enough time to find a name for that feeling, because the kiss only lasted one full tick. Keith pushed him away and he stumbled back off the bed.

"What the heck?" he yelled.

"I thought we just connected," Lance said, as though he was supposed to know what that meant.

"No, we forgave. There was no connection. Why would you do that? This morning you couldn't stand to be around me. Now you're kissing me?" Lance had no response. He himself couldn't fathom what had come over him. Keith sighed. "Please just get out." Lance swallowed hard and nodded, hurrying out and disappearing from the boy's sight.

Keith got up to close the door, then let his head fall against it with a dull thud. Lance had just kissed him. It had been so brief that it seemed like a figment of his imagination, but it had happened. And there was only one thought running through his head afterwards: _Why did I push him away?_

Chewing angstily at his lip, Keith went to lay back down in hopes of taking a nap before trying to train again. Despite the fact that they never got along, he couldn't deny that he had feelings for Lance, or that he had enjoyed their tick-long kiss. And it had partly been his fault for snapping this morning. The arguing was never one sided. A lot of it had been due to Lance's provoking, however, and that made much of it his fault. But still, the feeling of his lips had been wonderful.

Keith's hand brushed against the tip of his sword, and he winced when it scraped him. Unable to fall asleep, he decided to go to the training deck and clear his mind. He trained for the better part of the evening, and all through dinner too. He wasn't really hungry anyway. But later that night he gave up and admitted to himself that he needed to sort this out.

He was almost in front of Lance's bedroom door when he realized it was wide open, and no one was inside. At the same time, he spotted Pidge walking sleepily towards her own room.

"Hey, Pidge? I mean Katie? I mean-"

"Just call me whatever's easiest, I don't really care," she said.

"Okay Pidge, have you seen Lance anywhere?" She rubbed at her eyes, then adjusted her glasses.

"Uh I don't think so. Wait, yes I have. He went that way." She gestured down the hall she'd just come from. "Something about either missing or kissing, I didn't hear him quite right." Keith nodded, then walked briskly past her and down the hall.

After what seemed like at least twenty twists and turns through the castle, Keith discovered a cracked open door that lead out to a balcony he didn't know existed. There, with his feet dangling over the edge and his head turned to the nearly finished sunset of Arus, was Lance. Keith stared at him for a moment before walking out to stand behind him on the little balcony.

"I didn't want you to find me," Lance said. Keith couldn't help but love the sound of his voice. He went to sit down to Lance's right, close enough for their knees to be touching. "Too close," he said. But neither one of them moved.

"The sky," said Keith after a long pause, "looks nice tonight. I've always liked looking at the sky." He didn't actually. The sky was great and all, but he preferred the view of what was sitting right next to him.

"Yeah," Lance replied. "I've always liked the sky from out here. It reminds me of yo-" He stopped.

"What?" Lance figured Keith already knew how he felt so he might as well say this too.

"Your eyes," he sighed. "It reminds me of looking at your eyes. The Arus sky isn't as bright though. The night sky on Earth is much prettier." Keith blushed a bit, then scolded himself for it. He was here to forgive him again, not to admit his feelings. Although, perhaps he could do both.

"Lance, I'm sorry I pushed you away." All that followed was a long, drawn out silence where Lance wouldn't look up at him. Then,

"Don't worry about it. I don't even know why I did it. It's not like you of all people would like me. You're Keith, high and mighty, you wouldn't want anything to do with me." Keith frowned. He was actually quite shocked that that was how Lance thought of him.

"You don't know that. There's a lot of things you don't know about me."

"Like what?" Keith smiled.

"Well, for starters, you don't know how I really feel about you." Lance looked up at him and, once again, they were looking into each other's eyes. Keith could tell how confused he was, and he wanted to just get the words out. But he didn't know how. Instead, he leaned forward, cupped Lance's face in his hands, and kissed him.

Lance's eyes flew wide open and he tried to move away, but Keith just pulled him back in. When it was over, he tried to ask what was going on, but he was quieted with yet another kiss. So instead of resisting, he just kissed him back.

Keith's eyelids fluttered when he felt Lance put his hands delicately around his waist. The two just sat there and let reality slip away with every movement. Suddenly, the terrifying problems they were facing -the ascending army of Zarkon, the whole fate of the universe, and even the possibility of death- didn't seem so frightening anymore. The single kiss told everything they were thinking. All that mattered was that they were here together.

When their mouths slowly moved away, Keith felt as though his heart was soaring through the air on a cloud. He stared down at Lance's lips in wonder. It was only then that he noticed he was out of breath, and he started to pant quietly.

"Woah," Lance whispered.

"Did you like it?" It took Lance a moment to realize he had been asked a question he was supposed to answer.

"Yes. Absolutely. What, um, what was that for?"

"I think you know."

"I want to hear you say it." Keith rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling.

"I like you, Lance," he said. Just saying that to him after hiding it for so long felt liberating. Lance had not felt happier in quite a while, but he frowned slightly.

"Why?" Keith wasn't prepared for him to ask this, however knew the answer off the top of his head.

"There's just something about you that I've always found really charming."

"Seriously? I acted like I hated you."

"I knew you didn't hate me. That's not why I was upset. I was upset because I knew you cared but you didn't want anyone to know. I've seen how you react when you think I'm hurt. You definitely care." Lance didn't know what to say to this, and Keith was a bit glad that, for once, _he_ was the one catching _him_ off guard.

"Oh."

"So what about you? Why do you like me?"

"Ooh," Lance said, rubbing his hands together and sitting up a bit straighter. "Now this I can answer. First off, I love your personality." Keith laughed at this. "What?"

"How could you love my personality? I barely ever talk."

"You talk to me. You're talking now." Keith didn't have any way to argue with this. "Also I love your courage."

"Whaddaya mean courage?"

"You're braver than any of the rest of us. Without a doubt. You're the one who found the lions in the first place. And also I like you on account of you being really cute." Keith just scoffed.

"Okay, now I know you're lying. There's no way I could ever be considered anywhere close to cute."

"You are most definitely cute." When Lance said this, he reached out and booped him on the nose with the word 'definitely'.

"That's not true. How am I cute? Name one way that I'm cute." Lance didn't miss a beat.

"You purr in your sleep, for crying out loud." At this point, both boys were laughing uncontrollably. Lance attempted to quiet them down, but that only resulted in more laughter. Finally, they managed to stop laughing just enough to be able to talk again.

"Do I really purr in my sleep?" Keith asked. Lance nodded.

"I heard you. We were coming back from one of our rescue missions and we were all really tired. I tried to ask you something, but you fell asleep. I could hear you through the helmets. It was probably just snoring, but it really sounded like purring." Keith just shook his head in bewilderment. This was something he hadn't actually known before.

"Aw, man. Please don't tell the rest of the guys I purr in my sleep." Lance reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear.

"Don't worry, kitty. Your secret's safe with me." Keith shivered a bit, and he took that to mean he was cold and pulled him a little closer. At some point, the fingers of his left hand had entertwined with the ones on Keith's right.

"How are we going to tell everyone else about us?" Keith asked him. The way he had said us was odd, almost like it brought into perspective what had just happened.

"I don't know. It's not like they're going to say we can't, but it would still be kinda weird. We don't have to tell them right away though."

"Yeah, I guess not." Keith felt pretty comfortable with this answer to the question. Then another one popped into his head. "What was it you called me just a minute ago?"

"What? Oh, kitty. I called you kitty. Is that okay?"

"Oh yeah. It's kind of sweet. That's a cute nickname for your boyfriend." His last word made Lance startled. He raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Are you my boyfriend now?"

"Well is that what you want?" Lance nodded. "Then I'd be more than happy to be." They both smiled peacefully and gazed up at the now completely dark sky. When he was younger, Keith had always looked up at the stars and found them imposing. The possibility of all that space full of the unknown was troublesome. But now, having been to most of the space he could see, he didn't find it all that scary. Especially having been to those places with Lance by his side.

"What do you want to talk about now?" Lance asked.

"We don't have to talk," Keith replied, letting his he'd rest on his shoulder. "Let's just sit here and be together." And they did. They were happy with just being in each other's company; happy enough to fall asleep that way. Soon enough, the beautiful sunrise of Arus shone on the couple huddling close to one another and refusing to let go.


End file.
